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More than 400 dead dolphins wash up on Peruvian coast, cause a mystery

A dolphin carcass lies on the beach at Puerto Eten in Lambayeque, Peru, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014. More than 400 dead dolphins were found last month on the Pacific Ocean beaches where twice that amount were encountered in 2012, Peruvian officials said Monday. Authorities never established the cause of death in 2012. Photo: (AP Photo/Str)

Yuri Hooker, director of the marine biology unit at Cayetano Heredia University, told The Associated Press that in other parts of the world dolphin deaths generally are caused by environmental contamination when the sea mammals eat fish or other smaller species filled with toxins. Hooker said others die after ingesting discarded plastic floating in the sea.

The marine biologist said determining the death of dolphins is “complicated” in Peru because government laboratories have only three or four of the world’s 100 or so chemical reagents that can be used for determining the animals’ cause of death.

A scientist measures the remains of a dolphin washed ashore in Lambayeque, in the northern coast of Peru, some 750 kilometers north of Lima on January 27, 2014.